Can You See Are Planets With The Naked Eye? Or Can You See Them With A Teliscope?

Answer 1

You can see Jupiter, Venus and Mars without a telescope. AFAIK all the rest take telescopes.

Answer 2

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all easily visible to the naked eye. Mercury can be hard to catch, since it is always close to the Sun from our point of view, so it helps to know when and where to look. Venus is extremely bright - the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. Earth is pretty obvious :-) Mars is as bright as a bright star, and it has a red tint. Jupiter is brighter than any star, but not quite as bright as Venus. Saturn is not quite as bright as Mars, but still pretty easy to see.

Uranus can be seen with a small telescope. Some people, with superior vision and perfectly dark skies, can see Uranus with the naked eye. You need a telescope to see Neptune. Same goes for any other solar system object (like Pluto).

They say that you can tell a planet from a star because stars twinkle and planets don't. This is true, but I, for one, have a very hard time telling the difference. I can point out a planet simply because I am very familiar with the night sky, so if I see a star that doesn't belong, I know it's a planet.

Answer 3

Kris above hit the nail right on the head.

Most of the questions on here would not need to be asked if the people knew their way around the sky - knew the shapes of all the major constellations and the names of the brighter stars.

I learned them when I was 7. By the time the first satellites went up, I could walk out my door and would instantly know there was another object in the sky, because one of the constellations would look all wrong. I'd see this with averted vision, I wouldn't have to have been looking directly at that part of the sky.

One of the questions recently was some person did not know how to use his telescope. To buy an astro telescope before you know your way around the sky, is very foolish and will prove a great frustration and will end up being a waste of money.

Unless of course you took your telescope to an astro club where someone could teach you.

Answer 4

They're visible to the naked eye as stars that move differently than the rest. You can see saturns rings and mars with a good pair of binoculars. Jupiter is awesome through telescopes. Have you ever been to a planetarium? Look in the phone book or online for the nearest observatory and go visit.

Answer 5

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, can all be seen without a telescope. When Mercury appears farthest out from the sun it can be seen during dawn, or dusk. Uranus really requires a telescope, or strong pair of binoculars. If you hope to spot Neptune, a good powerful telescope will be necessary.

Answer 6

Visible to the naked eye (if you know when and where to look): Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and very occasionally Uranus (depending on its orbital location relative to Earth). Neptune always requires a telescope (so do Saturn and Uranus most of the time, unless the sky is exceptionally clear with no light pollution).

Answer 7

That depends on what you mean by being able to "see" them.
With the naked eye, you can see mercury, venus, mars, jupiter and saturn. But all of these will just be a point of light. You can't actually see any details with the naked eye.

Answer 8

The way to tell if something that you read about, is visible to the unaided eye or not, is to look up its Apparent Magnitude.

Confusingly, the bigger the number, the dimmer the object is. An Apparent Magnitude of 6 is about the dimmest that you can see in good viewing conditions (clear night, no street lights, no moon in the sky).

The very brightest objects in the sky have Apparent Magnitudes which are negative numbers, below 0. The Sun is -26.7, the Moon is -12. A difference in 5 magnitudes means between two objects means one is 100 times as bright as the other. A difference in 1 magnitude means one object is ~2.5 times as bright as the other (2.5 is approx. the fifth root of 100, the scale is logarithmic).

The term Apparent Magnitude refers to how bright an object looks to us. The term Absolute Magnitude refers to how bright an object would look if it were at a distance of 10 parsecs (32 Light Years) away from us. This is a system designed to compare like with like, without regard for distance.

The Sun would look like quite an ordinary star, if it were 32 light years away, not 8 light minutes from us. It would only be magnitude 4.5. i.e. its Apparent Magnitude is 31.2 magnitudes brighter than its Absolute Magnitude, meaning it is about 3 trillion times as bright (3 x 10^12) as we see it, than it would be if it was 10 parsecs away.

It is important not to confuse Absolute Magnitude and Apparent Magnitude when reading about celestial objects. All the magnitudes in the table below are Apparent Magnitudes.

5 Solar System bodies are easily visible to the unaided eye when nearest to us in their orbits and 5 are just about visible in dark sky conditions. Jupiter is brighter than Mars, most of the time, but at its very closest approach, Mars outshines Jupiter.

Magnitude of Venus at its brightest: -4.6
Magnitude of Mars at its brightest: -2.9
Magnitude of Jupiter at its brightest: -2.7

Magnitude of the brightest star Sirius: -1.47
Magnitude of 2nd brightest Star Canopus: -0.72

Magnitude of Saturn at its brightest: -0.3
Magnitude of Mercury at its brightest: -0.19

Magnitude of 3rd brightest Star Arcturus: -0.04

Magnitude of Ganymede: 4.6
Magnitude of Io: 5
Magnitude of Europa: 5.3
Magnitude of Callisto: 5.7
Maximum brightness of Uranus: 5.5

Limit of visibility to naked eye: 6

Maximum brightness of Neptune: 7.7
Maximum brightness of Titan: 7.9
Maximum brightness of Pluto: 13

The faintest objects that the Hubble Space telescope can make out: 30

Answer 9

You can sometimes see them with your naked eye depending on the season but unless you really know your stars you won't be able to distinguish them from other stars.

Answer 10

you can see some planets on clear nights with the naked eye but sometimes u have to use a telescope!

Answer 11

No, put some clothes on your eye. That's nasty!
And correct your spelling. You mean OUR planets?
Telescope?